Rocket reaches space station in record time

Watch as the launch to the International Space Station takes place in Kazakhstan

ABC News

A new Russian-American crew has arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) after an express trip from Earth of under six hours, the fastest ever journey to the orbiting laboratory.

A NASA astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts opened the hatches of their Soyuz-TMA spaceship and floated into the ISS to a warm welcome from the three incumbent crew.

Russia's Pavel Vinogradov and Alexander Misurkin and American Chris Cassidy are now expected to spend the next five months aboard the station after a hitch-free launch and docking.

Their record-breaking trip from blast-off at Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to docking with the ISS lasted just five hours and 45 minutes, slashing the travel time for arriving at the station.

Previously, trips to the ISS had taken over two full days as spaceships orbited the Earth 30 times before docking with the space station.

However, under a new technique now employed by the Russian space agency, the Soyuz capsule this time only orbited Earth four times before docking.

"The closer the station, the better we feel. Everything is going good," the cosmonauts radioed to flight controllers outside of Moscow as the Soyuz capsule approached the orbital outpost, a project of 15 nations.

On hand to greet the new crew were Expedition 35 commander Chris Hadfield, with the Canadian Space Agency, NASA astronaut Thomas Marshburn and cosmonaut Roman Romanenko.

Hadfield has over the last months built up a huge following online with colourful tweets from space and spectacular pictures of the Earth below.

After the retirement of the US space shuttle, Russia is now the sole nation capable of transporting humans to the ISS.

Russia tested the expedited route, which required very precise steering manoeuvrers, during three unmanned station cargo flights before allowing a crew to attempt it.

"Ballistics is a difficult thing. If for some reason you are not able to correct the orbit of the station or they have to avoid space debris ... that can disrupt this method," Igor Lisov, an expert at the Russian publican Novosti Kosmonavtiki, said.

The advantage, however, is that the crew does not have to stay for two days inside the cramped Soyuz capsule.

It also means they can arrive before any disabling effects of adapting to microgravity, which can include nausea, dizziness and vomiting, and that medical experiments and samples can arrive at the station sooner, enhancing science results.

Russian engineers began looking at new flight paths to reach the station about three years ago, Mr Vinogradov said at a prelaunch press conference.

"At first everybody was really apprehensive about it, but later on our ballistic specialists calculated the possibility, looked at the rocket and verified the capabilities of the Soyuz vehicle, which now has a digital command-and-control system and an onboard computer that can do pretty much anything," he said.

Russian engineers already are looking into cutting the trip time to two orbits, Mr Vinogradov said.